Day 99: Final Punch List and Moving Day 1

So the fun has begun.  We loaded the 26' truck we rented today.  We were thinking we weren't going to need this big of a truck and figured we would have some room left over.  We were going to just load boxes and small furniture in it and have the movers get all the big stuff.  Well that plan didn't work.  1.5 hours in, we still had boxes to load and the truck was over half full.  It became clear that we were not going to have room for much furniture.  We usually rent Budget trucks and their 24' truck is bigger than U-Haul's 26'.

So it looks like we are going to have to make a second trip, so we cancelled the movers and are just going to get everything in the next trip.  That fun will be tomorrow after closing.  For now, I need a long shower, a nap and lots of Motrin.

We stopped by the house and the punch out guy was there diligently working off discrepancies.  The electricians were in and finished their job.  The cleaners will be in tomorrow morning, just in time for us to move in.  GE wasn't out there today to look at the dishwasher, so hopefully they will get there early tomorrow.

Hold on, here we go!!!

1.5 Hours in and half full...we are in trouble.

4 Hours later and not much room for anything else.

Day 98: Pre-Settlement Walk-thru

We met the PM this morning and did our pre-settlement demonstration.

Lots of information exchanged.  He went over maintenance, warranties, features, etc.  Most of the info is in the book they give you but some was above and beyond.

We marked small discrepancies as we went through and those will be worked off between today and tomorrow.  Mostly drywall and paint.  There are so many walls in this place, it would be hard not to have these little things.  Basically, there was nothing I saw that concerned me.  The house looked great and is ready for its new owners.

On the Horizon:
- Closing Friday...and move in.

Ceiling fans finally installed. Those are 4' Down Rods for anyone who
might be wondering.

This border really turned out nice.
Have been getting lots of comments form other
RH employees on this as they pass through.

Were starting to see some grass sprout up

Day 97: Final Inspection

We had our final Building Inspection today.  It passed!!! So they will issues the Certificate of Occupancy.

Final Inspection Complete - Certificate of Occupancy Issued

We have our Pre-Settlement Walk-thru tomorrow.  I know there are a few items on the punch list they are madly working off.  I'll see tomorrow what's left.  GE is supposed to be out either Thursday or Friday to look at the dishwasher.  WE are supposed to move in Friday, so hopefully Thursday.

I'll let you all know how the walk-thru goes tomorrow and try to take some pictures.

Day 94-96: Final Electrical and Quality Inspection

Day 94-95: Sat/Sun July 20/21, 2013 - No Work on the house.

Day 96: Monday July 22nd, 2013 -

NVR:
Received an unofficial approval from our final underwriting today.  I guess we should get a final letter some time this week (I guess we will have to considering our closing is Friday).  The settlement coordinator sent us an advanced copy of our HUD-1 last Friday.  I'm going to continue to be in a defensive crouch, ready for anything, until we sign on the dotted line.

Quality Inspection:
The 3rd part inspection firm came through and did the QI.  Overall went as expected.  They marked a couple dings and dents that needed some paint.  There was 1 bigger thing with the dishwasher.  The inspector noted some water under the sink after running the unit.  Not sure what the problem was but it's being taken care of.

Electricians:
The electricians finally showed up and did part of their work before the QI.  They were supposed to came back after lunch and finish but I'm not sure if they did. 

They fixed the pole light out front and installed the light in the basement shower.  They still had a laundry list of things to do. We'll see if they finished it by the end of the day.

The PM had to go out and source some down rods for the 2 ceiling fans in the family room.  There was just no way they would have worked as flush mounts all the way up there.

The other item IRT the ceiling fans was how to control the ones in the family room.  That was an unanswered question dating back to the sales process I had forgotten to follow up on.  Nobody seemed to know if these came with remotes or not.  They did indicate they came with rods that didn't ship with them incidentally... The PM sourced a couple variable speed switches and is having them installed in the wall.  Problem solved.  Good to go.

Painters:
The painters caulked around the outside of the windows and in between the brick and siding.  They didn't' do a great job because.  The caulking isn't smooth and there are large gaps where water could get in.  The PM had already noticed it and will have them back after it stops raining.

Punch Out/Cleaners:
The punch out guys and cleaners finished up their work. 

The downspout catchers were placed backwards.  Not sure if these guys have ever done this before or not but the water is supposed to drain away from the house, not toward it.  See pictures below. 

The Lolly columns in the basement were bolted down.  This was the discrepancy from that last building inspection.  So it should pass next time.

Landscaping:
The grass and most of the bushes and shrubs seem to be doing well.  We have a little tree next to the corner of the house that doesn't seem to have taken the transfer too well.  It's getting lots of water, so we'll see if it lasts the week.

Concrete:
They poured the rest of our sidewalk in conjunction with someone else's driveway over the weekend.

On the horizon:
- Final Building Inspection for Certificate of Occupancy (Take 2) - Tomorrow.
- Pre-settlement walk-thru prep to work off QI discrepancies.
- Pre-settlement walk-thru on Wednesday.
- Work off the discrepancies I note during the pre-settlement walk-thru on Wednesday and Thursday
- Close on Friday
- Move-in Friday-Saturday...
- Enjoy our new home...a lifetime!!!
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Missing parts:
- Sconce light for basement stairs.
- Numbers for Mail Box.
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Broken light kind of repaired. It seems to be
listing a little to the right.

The water catcher there is backwards

Also backwards

Defective Dishwasher (Sounds like my Spouse)

This drain has to be re-centered

Niche Light Installed

Light in basement bath installed

This poor little tree may not make it

So what's left?

Electricians:
 - Swap wrong fixture in the Formal Living Room (Haven't confirmed it came in or not)
 - Need to install all our ceiling fans (x4)
 - Lights in basement (Storage areas) are all linked together are supposed to be on their own switches.
- Fix Coach light outside (It was listing and had a shard of broken glass inside it)
- Swap dome light at top of basement stairs with sconce (Waiting for this light to come in). This might be a service call after closing.

Painters:
- A few small touch ups inside the house.  Items noted by QI and my final personal QI.
- Re-caulk around outside of windows.  Spoke to PM he is on it.
- Finish spackling screw heads on molding around front door and paint. Spoke to PM on this and he is on it.

Other Misc.
- Put Address #'s on Mail Box (1 Side Complete, just need the other side). Parts are back ordered, this might be a service call after closing.
- Insulate Attic Stairs (They are going to do some sort of batting at the top of the scuttle)

Inspections:
- Final County Inspection for Certificate of Occupancy (Re-scheduled for tomorrow)

Furniture Update - Dinette

We were going back and forth on what to put in our dinette.  We really liked a set by Kincaid in their Sturlyn collection.  It is heirloom quality furniture and seeing how we are furnishing our last house (until we buy the small bungalow on a warm beach somewhere), we wanted the furniture to last.

We had 3 issues with this for the dinette:
1.) We have a 4 year old boy who would be using it everyday... scratches, dents, dings on a very expensive piece of furniture. On the upside it was solid wood, no veneer, so it could be re-finished.
2.) It was very expensive.  We will end up spending less on the table, chairs, rug, buffet and place settings than the Kincaid table alone, not including chairs.  The difference is, the Kincaid will last longer than us, while we will have to replace the set we bought in 3-5 years. Hopefully our little boy will be less destructive by then and then we will get the more expensive set.
3.) The round table has a 60" diameter.  We wanted a round or curved table to facilitate traffic flow but were concerned that either the patio door would swing in and hit the back of the chairs or we would restrict flow into the kitchen.  What we ended up with has a 48" diameter but is 68" long with leaf installed.  Our dinette is rectangular so this works out well.  We will also end up with seating for 6 versus 5.

This is what we ended up going with:

We purchased the Ronan table and chairs from Pier 1, pictures below.  We decided to put 4 Ronan chairs on the sides and 2 upholstered chairs on the ends.

We found a Tommy Bahama rug at a local overstock warehouse.  When it was new it sold for $1,200 but was marked at $249 in the store.  We didn't realize this until we got to the register.  It was in the middle of a pile of rugs marked $79.  It was the last one and had some soil spots on the bottom corners (not visible on the top). The clerk that worked in the area said he could give us 25% because it was damaged (basically giving us a coupon they had out that we didn't have).  After some back and forth at the register, they honored the $79 price and took 25% off making it $59 for a $249 rug (Score).  We had never been to this store before and although it was a large close out type of store, the customer service was pretty good and we will probably go back.

The set will go below the chandelier in the picture.



Part of Pier 1 Ronan Collection
Still need to find place settings...

Four of these (2 Per Side)...haven't found cushions yet.
Pier 1 Ronan Dining Chair

 



Two of these (On either end of the table)
Pier 1 Carmilla Dining Chair (Ivory)

 

In place of Built In Buffet Option (Still need to order this)
Pier 1 Indira Buffet

Tommy Bahama Island Gold Rug (5'x8')

Day 93: House Cleaning and Final Punch List

Inspections:
- The final plumbing and water test was done last week and passed.
- Final Building Inspection was done today and failed due to missing anchors on two of the steel columns. An easy fix and the re-inspection is scheduled for early next week.  We are still on track for closing on July 26th.

Cleaning:
The cleaners were in today.  They took the cardboard off the hardwood and had begun cleaning the hardwoods when we got there.  This is the first time we have really been able to see them and they are exactly what we wanted.  They pretty much were cleaning, wiping and dusting all over the house.

Punch List:
- Too many small things to list...but they were all over the house touching things up and caulking various items.

Siding:
- Finished painting and trimming the molding around the front door. They patched the screw holes but didn't' do a great job because you can still see the screw heads. I'll bring this up to the PM next week.

Misc:
- Installed door handle on laundry room door.
- Power washed the outside of the house and garage.

Excavation:
- The PM said he saw them run the rock hound over the yard. I couldn't walk more than a few feet without picking up large boulders.

Flooring:
- They installed the carpet runner on stairs.  It turned out pretty nice.  Not sure if we will end up pulling it up or not but they didn't use tack strips and used very few staples to install it.

Landscapers:
- They finished mulching our flower beds
- They finished setting up irrigation system

Utilities:
- Just found out from my PM that we are supposed to contact the cable and telephone company to get them to run the wiring from the house to the street.  Didn't know this.  I called Time Warner to hook up service on June 30th and they were supposed to do a trouble ticket to see if we can get service at our house and call me back by July 5th.  These guys must work with the electricians...no call, no service.

Electricians:
- Still MIA. The excuse they are using now is they are having vehicle issues.

Was getting artistic
I call this one, "View from the creeper across the street."

Mulch done...Electrical Work NOT So Much!!!

Power Washed the Garage

Carpet Runner Installed

Those boxes are all our ceiling fans and
light fixtures that have to be installed.

The floors hadn't been cleaned yet, so they still have dust on them.

So what's left?

Electricians (I told the PM, I may install these things and send them a bill!!!):
 - Swap wrong fixture in the Formal Living Room
 - Need to install all our ceiling fans (x4)
 - Lights in basement (Storage areas) are all linked together are supposed to be on their own switches (didn't verify this was done yet.).
- Light in basement bathroom
- Fix Coach light outside
- Swap dome light at top of basement stairs
- Install proper light in upstairs niche

Painters:
- A few small touch ups inside the house (they may have been done by the end of the day).
- Finish spackling screw heads on molding around front door and paint.

Other Misc.
- Caulk around the outside of the windows and in between the brick (I forgot to ask the PM about this, I'll talk to him next week.).
- Put Address #'s on Mail Box (1 Side Complete, just need the other side). Parts are back ordered.
- Insulate Attic Stairs (They are going to do some sort of batting at the top of the scuttle)
- Other Misc. Punch List Items as noted by the PM. He was making a new list while we were there, so I figured I would add to it while we were there. He probably would have noticed them too but we are getting down to the wire and would prefer to have as few things to do and as few workers in the house between now and closing as possible.  It seems like each time one of the trades comes in, they do some sort of damage. I'm really not looking forward to the electricians coming back because they are not gentle.

Inspections:
- Final County Inspection for Certificate of Occupancy (Re-scheduled for next Tuesday)
- Quality Inspection by Third Party (Scheduled for Monday).